Status Update

Happy Monday to all...

At this point the world still doesn't really know how dangerous New Roundup is going to be, except that it's likely to take fifty years or more to break down into the soil so that anything anyone would want to eat will grow well. It's like sowing land with salt, only moreso. 

I can, however, say that New Roundup harms people. Specific effects it has on me begin with inflamed eyes, sneezing, coughing, reduced ability to exhale, and continue on to muscle weakness, cramping, and narcolepsy.

If you've wondered about the drop in the number, quality, and regularity of posts on this blog...yes, part of it has been time lost to paid work, and part of it has been time lost to inability to sit at the computer and write. 

The Internet has been working beautifully since midsummer when Bayer changed its formula (again) to avoid lawsuits. I have not been working beautifully. I have been having reactions that involve sleeping twelve hours a day and feeling as if walking around the house were hard work. During these reactions I've had thoughts like "I must be making up for lost sleep" or "My thyroid must be going," but after a good rain I feel normal again. This has been going on long enough that I know what's doing it.

And I know who's doing it. The Professional Bad Neighbor drove past the house about 6 a.m. on Sunday morning. It had rained, so he was in a great hurry to spray poison on his frostbitten acres, above a mountain spring, where he'd promised that no chemicals would be used as a condition of buying the acres...before the snowstorm arrived. He's not trying to clear land for any purpose. (For that, all a person needs is a chain saw and some cows.) His goal is to harm his neighbors.

I slept about twelve hours yesterday. Then I went out and stayed out late and came home, about two o'clock in the morning, feeling ready for the night's work and looking forward to the expected rain, sleet, and snow that would wash the poison out of the air. By six o'clock this morning my eyes were burning and I was feeling dopey and lazy again. Then the rain finally arrived and I got my day's sleep. So now at least I can see the computer screen...not very clearly, and not altogether without pain, but enough to type.

Snow is expected. It's not expected to be very heavy but the normal course of events here is that, when snow falls, nothing electric or electronic normally works. Some years some people have enjoyed the full use of our modern conveniences through a snowstorm. There's always a large element of chance--it's not necessarily people in or near town whose lights will stay on. People who don't want to stay in their homes without electricity never know for sure where to go. There's no guarantee that even McDonald's or Food Lion, up on the hill with their backup generators and backup Internet servers, will be able to open tomorrow morning.

If this is the last post you see here apart from the pre-scheduled winter-holiday-theme book reviews I've been assigning to every weekday in December, all year, chances are that I'm safe and warm but not connected. Please save all worries for people who do not enjoy walking in snow. 

If you want to indulge in "concerns" about me, please feel concerned about me and all the other "Spoonies" who are feeling as bad or worse, as often, as they did last year but having completely different symptoms, baffling doctors who've been trained not to check for chemical pollution as a cause of illness. 

Really, with most of us, there's nothing wrong that a good redistribution of all Bayer's assets among those the corporation has harmed wouldn't cure. 

For me, personally, it would also help to receive regular video updates on the progress (toward a slow miserable end, I mean) of the Bad Neighbor in a locked ward in a hospital. I believe that, if there is any Purgatory, the dear older people who were deluded into selling him those acres are in it, and his being locked up for life with no chance of release would relieve their distress.